The blog of Bjorn and Jeannette, a freethinking couple in Saint Paul, MN

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Label

Last night, Jeannette and I went to see The Label at the Varsity Theater in Dinkey Town. Two guys I went to high school with are in the group, Bill Young, and Ben Densen. The Label is a group of local comedians, who present these shows, in an odd format. The way it's done lets the comics perform live for about 45 minutes for 6 or so comics, and the rest is filled with premade video skits, and musical intermissions. Each live set is only about 5 to 7 minutes. The whole gig is very self promoting, with cameras everywhere, because they like to film themselves, and made a DVD out of it, which they sell at the next show. I would have enjoyed myself better if I had a few drinks that they sold there. The doors opened 20 minutes late, and we had to stand around in a crowded lobby. That is one thing to be said, there were a lot of people there, maybe 150 to 200, each coughing up 10 bucks. Once that's spread around, however, I'm sure it's enough for each comic to pay their tab at the bar after the show. Once seated, the show didn't start for another 30 minutes. The people I saw in the crowd, I had seen before. These people are open mic groupies. Each of the comedians I have seen at one time or another on stage at an open mic night. That what the night felt like, a group of people, who are just a step above the open mic scene, but only because they've done it for so long, that they can't suck that bad. The format, and concept, is alright. I could have done without the live band, they weren't that good, and made the cuts between artist too long. The videos were each unique, in the style of the comics. Each comic had their own style to bring to the stage, but are kind of holding on to a character they have created, such as the skinny guy, the awkward guy, the awkward girl. Also, I thought observational humor was dead. As a comic you should be able to write original comedy, not just repeat the funniest thing that you saw in the last month. I did like Bill's set. He's been doing comedy as long as I've been working with computers. While I don't get to go to Iowa to fix computers, I'd say he's about as funny as I am good at fixing computers. His best joke, I thought, was about duck hunters. He saw a guy, who spend hundreds of dollars on a decoy, gear, guns, all to hunt ducks. I'm pretty sure all you need is bread and a hammer. Just go to the park and they just line up to be next. I might want to buy the DVD of the show, just to see how they cut it together, and I did like Tommy's video. You can check out The Label here.